Tuesday, 5 July 2016

Fifa appeal committee reduces Valcke ban from 12 to 10 years

Fifa has announced that its Appeal Committee has opted to reduce the bans imposed on former secretary general Jerome Valcke and South Korean official Chung Mong-joon.

Early this year, Valcke was handed a 12-year ban from all football-related activities by Fifa’s Ethics Committee for an array of areas of misconduct committed by the Frenchman. The verdict came after Valcke was in January sacked by Fifa, with the Ethics Committee having initially recommended a nine-year ban and a fine of CHF100,000 ($102,900) after its investigatory chamber laid out its proposals concerning a World Cup ticket scandal.

Valcke was suspended by the governing body on October 8 after allegations emerged in September surrounding the sale of World Cup tickets. Valcke was reportedly on his way to Moscow in Russia, the host of the 2018 World Cup, when the allegations were brought up at a briefing by a ticketing partner of Fifa’s official hospitality agency, Match, in Zurich, Switzerland.

Amongst the additional violations, the Ethics Committee said that Valcke attempted to grant the media rights in the Caribbean for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to a third party for a fee far below their actual market value. It added that Valcke had taken “concrete preparatory action” in this regard.

However, the Appeal Committee today, Tuesday, ruled that “mitigating factors” had not been fully assessed by the adjudicatory chamber with regard to the allegations surrounding the Caribbean media rights. Therefore, the ban imposed by the adjudicatory chamber on Valcke, which entered into force on February 10, has been reduced from 12 to 10 years. However, the fine of CHF100,000 has been confirmed.